My template for the time period we are in now is 1966 -1972. The DOW Averages made a high in 1966 and then never surpassed it until well into the 1980s. In between there were huge rallies and collapses of hundreds of points.  Most of you were born after the Chicago Seven Trial of 1969,…

The WSJ reports that Republicans are not profiting from dissatisfaction with Washington DC as usual. I am not surprised. Harry Browne as the libertarian candidate for President wrote Why Government Doesn't Work. He theorized that if either political party were to disappear, it would much more likely be the Republicans, not the Dems. As he…

Socionomics holds that popular culture determines what happens in the markets. From my friends at the Socionomics Institute, here is what we mean by that. Ralph Lauren's latest design are strictly Dust Bowl Era. Henry Fonda wore such outfits in The Grapes of Wrath about the Depression, here we go again. Fashion trends, music, and…

I write a weekly newspaper column for the Andrews County News. Andrews, TX is at the literal center of the Permian Basin, the largest land based oil producing area of the US and Texas. Crude oil prices are a literal mental barometer of the economy. In this week's column I explain how socionomics works.  How…

Alert Student Rose spotted this article about Johnny Depp and Tim Burton teaming up to do a movie version of Dark Shadows.    burton  specializes in the dark side. Gee did anyone else see Mars Attacks, now there is a weird piece for you. Anyway….But wait what's this?  Burton is doing 1984, the Orwell classic, to…

The first pop mania I remember was the Disney induced Davy Crockett craze of the mid to late 1950s. No dobut Disney regretted the fact that Crockett died at the Alamo, who knows how long it might have lasted otherwise? But my point is that Davy Crockett faux coonskin caps et al were the craze…

Parade magazine is that familiar Sunday newspaper insert. Most of the articles are rather bland family fare The latest edition asks about the Child Care Crisis. In reality this is a crisis brought on by higher government taxes forcing more people into the work force as well as the idea that 'one person can live as…

First read my posts on June 20 about the movie Hard Times and then June 22 about Trump buying WWE Raw Wrestling.  My comment to Lee Ann's insightful post of Trump strategy.  I would guess WWE ratings will rise, hard to skyrocket from here but we shall see, movies were big in the depression for…

You got to hand it to Trump, he usually has his finger on the action. We have written how the mood of America has turned decidedly negative. Wrestling is  a sort of come hither negative, the good guy versus the bad guy, all hype and some action. Roller Derby became popular during the 1930s. Wrestling…

Walter Hill directed then box office stars Charles Bronson and James Coburn in 1975's Hard Times.The movie portrayed a the Hard Times of the Depression.  Coburn was the promoter for bare knuckle fighter Charles Bronson. Ouch, what a way to make a living. Note the move came out in the middle of 1970s 'hard times.'…